


Paintball

by marichatting



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, M/M, Paintball, Paintball AU, i'm trash, what even is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 09:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8157874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marichatting/pseuds/marichatting
Summary: An AU in which Keith and Lance are paintball rivals.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what gave me this idea?? I was just listening to Fall Out Boy and became inspired

Sweat drips down Lance's face as he shelters himself behind a large boulder, panting heavily.

"I'm going for it," Hunk tells him.

"You can't!" Lance argues. "It's too dangerous. You could get hit!"

"I have to try!"

The two continue arguing for a moment before Lance finally gives in with a sigh. "Fine. Be careful out there."

Hunk nods, takes a deep breath, and quickly rushes out from the shelter of the boulder- only to be shot within moments.

Hunk falls to the ground.

"No! Hunk!" Lance screams.

"Lance, chill," Hunk responds from the ground. "It's just paintball."

Lance sighs in frustration. Seeing as he and Pidge are the only offense left on their team- although he hasn't seen Pidge in a while, so she could be out- he has no idea how they're going to capture the flag guarded by the other team.

"Lance," someone hisses.

Lance spins around, aiming his paint gun, but falters when he sees Pidge peeking out at him from some shrubbery.

"Pidge, where have you been?!"

"Spying on them to figure out their strengths, weaknesses, and the best strategy to defeat them."

"Naturally. So what did you come up with?"

Pidge huffs. "Their strategy is- well, it'd be a crap strategy for any other team, but it works like a charm for them."

"And what is this strategy?"

"They depend on Keith for literally everything. He's guarding the flag from a vantage point where he can see approximately 95% of the battlefield, with this spot being part of the 5% he can't see. He shoots everyone who isn't wearing a red jersey. The others are just for decoration. We could take all of them out and it wouldn't make any difference- except that we can't take them out because he shoots everyone who tries- but if he were out of the picture, the team would be worthless. Also, they have no offense. Shiro and Matt are back there just standing around, useless, waiting for someone to come try to capture our flag. Their strategy is just to defend their flag and shoot everyone in sight so that when the time runs out, no one will have captured the flag, but they'll have the most players left, so they'll win."

Lance narrows his eyes. "So what you're saying is... if Keith were to, I don't know, accidentally stumble in front of a bus or something-"

"No, Lance, I'm not saying we should put a hit out on Keith," Pidge responds, rolling her eyes. "I'm saying we should either shoot him and eliminate him from the game, or one of us-" Pidge fakes a cough while saying "you,"- "could distract him while the other-" again, she pretends to cough, this time while saying "I,"- "could run out and grab the flag."

"But what if the people stationed around the flag shoot whichever of us goes out to get it?"

"Trust me, they're just part of the aesthetic. They couldn't hit a target from a foot away."

Lance considers. "What if one of us simultaneously distracts him and tries to eliminate him?"

Pidge nods with a grin. "Excellent idea, Lance! Since you came up with it, I'll let you follow through with it."

"What? No! I want to get the flag!"

"Nope, sorry, that's my job. I'm little and fast. It'll be harder to shoot me."

Lance huffs. "I don't care! I want the victory-"

Pidge steps out from the shrubbery and shoves him out from the shelter of the boulder, then quickly dashes back into the cover of the greenery and disappears.

Lance huffs and runs toward Keith, who is standing in a tall wooden guard tower-like structure keeping watch over the camp.

"Hey, mullet-head! Eat paint!"

He aims his gun and begins firing pellet after pellet at Keith's exposed head and upper torso.

Keith drops to his knees and immediately begins firing back at Lance. Lance dances out of the way, narrowly avoiding paint pellets.

"Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith Keith!" Keith's teammates begin shouting for his attention. He quickly glances over to see Pidge running toward the flag, shooting several defenders on her way.

Keith looks back at Lance, then back at Pidge again, and finally makes a decision.

He turns to Pidge and shoots her, exposing one side of his head to Lance.

Lance shoots him.

"Yes!" Lance shouts. Grinning victoriously, he turns and aims his gun to start shooting the terrified-looking defenders.

The noise of an air horn fills the battlefield before he can.

Time is up.

"Are you kidding me?!" Lance shrieks.

Keith comes down from his guard tower with a smirk. "Sorry, Lance, but rules are rules. No one captured the flag, and we have four players left while, if I've been counting correctly, you only have three. That means we win. Good game." He holds out his hand for Lance to shake it.

Lance considers just storming away without shaking his hand, but he realizes that would seem petty.

He shakes Keith's hand, making sure to squeeze as hard as he can. Unfortunately, Keith seems unfazed by Lance's attempt to strangle his hand.

"Good game," Lance grumbles, scowling at him.

***

"Hey, Lance," Pidge says, walking up to him during passing period the next day. "What's up with you? You've been in a bad mood since yesterday... wait, don't tell me you're still upset about the game?"

Lance huffs with a scowl. "Of course I'm still upset about it! I can't keep losing to Keith, Pidge! He's the worst! He's arrogant and self-absorbed and- he- he-" Lance stutters, searching for more of Keith's bad qualities- even though he knows the first two were made up. "He has a mullet!"

Pidge gives him one of those "I'm done" looks. "So, let me get this straight: you want to beat Keith at paintball because he... has a mullet."

Lance blinks. "...amongst other things, yes."

Pidge sighs and shakes her head. "I can't believe you."

"What? It's a legitimate reason! His hair is stupid. I can't lose to someone with stupid hair."

Pidge just walks away, shaking her head and mumbling under her breath.

***

That night, Lance lies in his bed thinking about ways to beat Keith.

Suddenly, he comes to a realization.

He doesn't necessarily need to beat him; he just needs to stop losing to him.

If they're on the same team, he can't lose to him.

Smirking, Lance pulls a blanket up over his body and begins to formulate his plan.

***

"Oh, Keeeeiiiith," Lance singsongs upon spotting the boy.

Keith slowly turns around, a scowl already adorning his face. "What do you want?"

"I think we should team up," Lance says, getting straight to the point. "I'm already great at paintball, and my teammates are good too, and you're... pretty good. If we team up, we'll be unbeatable."

"I'm already unbeatable."

"Are you sure about that? Because I heard Allura pounded you into the dirt last time your teams competed."

Keith scowls more, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks. "Okay, fine, but she's Allura. She could pound anyone into the dirt."

"Not us, if we join forces."

"Actually, she could probably still beat us."

"I'm not hearing a 'no.'"

Keith huffs, but hesitates before responding. "I... I can't abandon my team."

"The team that just stands around and lets you do all the work? The team that didn't even try to shoot Pidge when she ran to get the flag yesterday? The team that just yelled your name until you sacrificed yourself so they wouldn't lose?"

Keith narrows his eyes at Lance, considering. "I'll think about it," he finally says.

"Choose wisely."

***

"Um, what is Keith doing here?" Hunk asks Lance in a whisper, staring- like everyone else on the team- at Keith.

"He's on the team now," Lance announces happily, to be answered with a chorus of incredulous "what"s.

"He decided he'd rather be on a team that actually does stuff, rather than a team who just depends on him for everything. Now we're invincible! I bet we could even beat Allura."

"We couldn't beat Allura," Pidge responds instantly, to be met with several muttered agreements.

Lance nods. "Okay, yeah, that's probably true, but the point is we could beat pretty much anyone else.

"Now come on, let's get practicing!"

***

"Bye! Good practicing! See you at school!"

Lance says bye to each of his teammates as they leave to go home. Finally he turns around to see that Keith is still standing behind him.

"I just wanted to say thanks for inviting me to join the team," Keith says awkwardly. "It was nice, today, not being relied on for everything."

Lance barely hears him over the alarms going off in his head.

Keith is sweaty. Keith is sweaty. Keith is sweaty. Keith is sweaty. Keith is sweaty.

Keith.

Is.

Sweaty.

Lance finally comes to his senses after a moment and feels a blush ignite his face. "Um, yeah, well-" he clears his throat awkwardly. "-I did it with all the most selfish of reasons, of course."

Keith chuckles quietly. "Of course."

They stand there silently for a while, Keith looking at Lance and Lance avoiding his gaze.

What's wrong with me? Lance wonders. The guy gets a little sweaty, and suddenly I can't talk or look him in the eye.

"Do you- um," Lance stutters out before he can stop himself. "Do you want to hang out sometime? We could see a movie or get dinner or something."

"Like... with the rest of the team?"

"Sure, or um, just the two of us."

Keith raises his eyebrows. "Like a date?"

Lance's face burns and his eyes go wide. He hesitates a moment. "That... that's gay, Keith."

Keith chuckles. "That makes two of us."

Lance's eyes go impossibly wider. "You- you- you're-" he sputters.

Keith nods. "Gay, attracted to dudes, yep. And judging from the way you immediately turned cherry-red and lost the ability to look me in the eye or form a coherent sentence when you saw me sweaty, I'm guessing you're not straight."

Lance gulps. "I may or may not be questioning my heterosexuality."

Keith smirks and takes a step toward him. "Need some help?"

Just as Lance grasps the implication of his words, Keith eliminates the distance between them and presses his lips to Lance's.

The kiss seems to last a lifetime. Lance's face burns, and he can feel Keith smirking against his lips.

Finally they break away.

They simply stare at each other for a moment, before words burst out of Lance's mouth against his will.

"Well. I'm definitely not straight."

Keith laughs. "So... about your offer earlier... I would love to take you up on that."

Lance blushes. "G-great!"

I can't believe I ever thought I was straight, he thinks.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment with feedback and/or request a oneshot! Thanks!
> 
> -Emma
> 
> Find me on Tumblr: [mykinkisdracomalfoy ](http://www.mykinkisdracomalfoy.tumblr.com)


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